Josh Gordon and the Browns: They need each other to get where they want to go

ESPN 850 Cleveland | Oct 30

Whew: Josh Gordon said he expected to stay with the Browns, but he kept his cell phone nearby and checked TV reports right up until Tuesday’s NFL 4 p.m. trade deadline. He heeded the words of his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, who told him, “Anything was possible.”

“I’m definitely relieved,” Gordon said. “I wanted to stay here. Didn’t feel like uprooting myself and starting all over. I feel we have a lot to prove here and a lot to build on in this offense and program with these guys. I want to be at least one of the guys who helped get it started.

“I want to end up in a playoff game.”

The smooth wide receiver said he was flattered that other teams expressed interest in him and didn’t resent the Browns listening to offers.

“Because these aren’t the guys who drafted me, they don’t really know me,” he said of the Joe Banner management team. “It’s a business. So if they got something they wanted offered to them, I couldn’t blame them for taking it.”

So now that the deadline has passed, Gordon and the Browns can go about the process of growing together. Both have a long ways to go. They really do need each other.

A mentor emerges: Given Gordon’s immense talent, his shady past and his inexperience in the NFL, running back Willis McGahee last week suggested he would really benefit from having a veteran receiver as a mentor. On Wednesday, quarterback Jason Campbell volunteered for the role.

“I think that’s part of my job, part of the reason why I’m here,” Campbell said. “From being in games for nine years and him being a young guy and with a whole bunch of young guys around him, it’s kind of like ‘who’s mentoring who?’ So I think it’s part of my role to help mentor some of these guys and bring them along.”

Campbell said he has told Gordon to study game film of stud receivers such as Calvin Johnson and Brandon Marshall to improve his own game.

Since returning from a league drug suspension the first two games, Gordon has averaged 97 receiving yards over the next six. Only the great Megatron in Detroit has done better (117.3). Gordon has 32 catches for 582 yards for an 18.2-yard average. Only Baltimore’s Torrey Smith (20.3) has a higher one.

“Josh has all the ability in the world to be what he wants to be,” Campbell said.

“I see him maturing. I think a lot of things that happened in the past has caused him to really take a hard look in the mirror and see the things that he can really become, and not let those things get him in trouble and keep him from being the player he can be. He’s more of a quiet guy, but he’s maturing and he’s understanding. I didn’t even know he was that young. He’s 22 years old. It’s almost like he’s a kid brother.”